RECORDS OF W.A. MUSEUM. 
[55 
the shrews atid the insectivorous hedgehog, which is known to kill 
young rabbits’, by means of its incisors — are by them regarded as 
exceptions to the general rule, and not to be compared with 
Thylacoleo, which was said to hunt the Dipvotodon, Nctothenum, and 
Giant Wombat, creatures equalling or surpassing itself in size. 
That Thylacoleo should be a vegetable feeder seems to be 
improbable, on account of its diminutive or suppressed molars; 
these are quite useless for the purpose of pounding and crushing, 
nor can these functions be performed by the abnormally developed 
sectorial premolars. 
As Prof. McCoy quite rightly observes (Prod. Pal. Viet., Dec. 
III., p. 8), the opponents of Owen’s theory seem to overlook this 
point when emphasizing the resemblances between Thylacoleo and 
the Rat Kangaroos, which have four, or occasionally three, well- 
developed molars behind each large premolar. 
Again, we have now abundant evidence pointing to the fact 
that Thylacoleo was in the habit of crushing the bones of animals 
which were its contemporaries. De Vis,* Anderson,’’ and Baldwin 
Spencer and Walcott * have described bones which bear un- 
doubted impressions of the upper and lower premolars of the 
animal. Crushed and broken bones, many bearing tooth-marks, 
are so plentiful in certain localities that it is quite out of the 
question to consider them the result of playful antics of the young of 
Thylacoleo ; they must rather be regarded as the refuse after a meal 
partaken of by this Marsupial Lion. In the writer’s opinion the 
animal obtained its food, not after the manner of the lion, tiger 
and dingo, but rather after the fashion adopted by the hyaena, 
acting as a scavenger and feeding upon the dead and dying. Thjs 
would explain the presence of its tooth marks on bones found in the 
1 De Vis, C. W., “ On Tooth-marked Bones of Extinct Marsupials,’’ Proc, Lin. 
Soc., N.S.W., Vol. VIII., 1883/4, p. 187. 
‘‘On a Femur, probably of Thylacoleo," Proc Roy. Soc. Q'land, Vol. III., 1886, 
p. 122. 
“ Remarks on a Fossil Implement and Bones of an Extinct Kangaroo," Proc. 
Roy. Soc. Viet., Vol XII., i88g. p. 81. 
‘‘ Bones and Diet of Thylacoleo," Annals Q’land Museum, No. 5, 1900, p. 7. 
2 Anderson, W. “ On Post-tertiary Ossiferous Clays near Myall Creek, Bingera," 
Rec. Geol. Surv., N.S.W., Vol. I., 1889/90, p. 116. 
3 Baldwin Spencer, Dr. W., and Walcott, R. H., " The Origin of Cut on Bones 
of Australian Extinct Marsupials, ’’ Proc. Roy. Soc. Viet., Vol. XXIV., 
Pt. I, igii, p. 92. 
